Star-studded events breathe new life into Indian tennis

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  • Indian summer: Indian tennis needs new players to step-up and replace legends like Leander Paes and Mahesh Buhpati.

    This week the ATP tennis tour bandwagon roles into one of its most distinctive locations: India. The Chennai Open is part of the ATP World Tour 250 Series and while countries such as the USA, United Kingdom and France host several competitions at all levels throughout the year, India has the privilege of hosting just one ATP event.

    – Sania Mirza backs IPTL despite player fatigue
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    THE STORY SO FAR

    Tennis has been popular in India since around the 1880s when the British Army brought the game to the subcontinent.

    Regular tournaments such as the Punjab Lawn Tennis Championship in Lahore (now Pakistan) and the Bengal Lawn Tennis Championship in what is now Kolkata quickly became highlights on the Indian sporting calendar and enjoyed large attendances.

    Tennis provided sports fans with an alternative to cricket – as a more fast-paced game, many found it more spectator-friendly.

    India’s blossoming domestic game led to improved performances on the international stage and in 1921 the nation competed in its first Davis Cup.

    Indian tennis teams have never won the sport’s most prestigious international tournament but have finished as runners-up three times (1966, 1974 and 1987), which is a testament to how well regarded India have been in tennis.

    In 1974 it was even suggested that India’s time had come to win but the final against South Africa was scrapped after India refused to participate due to the South African government's apartheid policies.

    Most notably in doubles tennis, India has produced a number of superb players who have won the sport’s most prestigious tournaments.

    The names Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are legendary in doubles tennis as two of its finest ever exports.

    Paes and Bhupathi won three Grand Slam titles and finished runners-up at two others. This in itself is an impressive statistic but, playing alongside other partners in the mixed and the men’s competitions, the pair amassed a staggering 23 grand slam titles between them, claiming runners-up spots in a further 23 tournaments.

    These statistics are remarkable for a number of reasons. Not only does it reflect the pair’s longevity in a physically-taxing sport, but they have also proven that Indian tennis players can compete at the highest level and earn a good living from the sport.

    THE HERE AND NOW

    Sport as a whole in India is experiencing a boom with leading businesses lending their wealth to establish professional leagues in cricket, football and tennis.

    These leagues are established with three principles in mind. Firstly, they provide great entertainment for the Indian people with some of the world’s top foreign talent playing to sold-out stadiums.

    Secondly, they allow locally-based players of the franchises to play alongside this imported talent and improve their own skill-levels.

    Lastly, these tournaments spare no expense with their pomp and ceremony, which helps capture the imagination and attention of India’s youth, demonstrating to them that professional sport can lead to a rewarding career.

    Last year was significant for the development of Indian tennis when two of these professional leagues were established in the country.

    Using a similar model to cricket’s highly successful Indian Premier League (IPL), the Champions Tennis League (CTL) and the International Premier Tennis League (IPTL) were created by two former Indian tennis legends in Vijay Amritraj (the brother of current Davis Cup captain Anand Amritraj) and Bhupathi respectively.

    The CTL was played across six Indian cities and holding true to the three core principals, each team had a local player plus three former tennis legends such as Juan Carlos Ferrero, Pat Cash and Venus Williams.

    The core infrastructure of Bhupathi’s IPTL was the same but it included an international element with teams coming from Dubai, Manila, New Dehli and Singapore.

    This tournament attracted even more impressive funding and consequently current stars such as Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova and Novak Djokovic – to name just a few – were picked to play.

    “The leagues are fantastic,” said India No. 1 player Somdev Devvarman, who played in the inaugural CTL and is a wild-card entry into this year’s Chennai Open. “They create a buzz that’s been missing for a while in Indian tennis. The leagues have the unique ability to capture the attention of youngsters and motivate them to pick up a racket.”

    Tennis enjoys a considerable following in India today but the country has failed to build upon past success and develop the game further, particularly in singles tennis.

    One reason for India’s lack of success at the top level could be due to the emergence of a sport like football and its Indian Super League, which has taken the country by storm. This increased popularity means that, along with field hockey, tennis competes directly with more sports to attract the key grass roots demographic it requires to produce more top-level players.

    Devvaraman feels that the leagues help to breakdown the stereotype in India that tennis is just for kids who live in big urban cities.

    “The biggest tennis stars from India all come from cities like Chennai and that needs to change,” he said. “The Chennai Open is a magnificent tournament and I used to watch it 19 years ago as a boy but the leagues help to bring tennis to new markets in India and capture the attention of the whole country.”


    THE FUTURE

    Paes and Bhupathi are now in their forties and are at the end of their illustrious careers.

    While Indian tennis goes through a rebuilding phase players, the hopes of a nation lie with Sania Mirza and Devvaraman to deliver in the biggest tournaments. At 28, Mirza is a three-time Grand Slam champion in mixed doubles while Devvaraman is a Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medalist. 

    Of India’s new batch of players coming though the names to watch out for are former Boys Australian Open singles champion Yuki Bhambri, and Sanam Singh.

    Both are new to the senior circuit and the support of veteran players like Amritraj and Bhupathi will be key in their development as professionals.

    With initiatives such as the CLT and the IPTL attracting the youth of the nation to tennis, it will surely only be a matter of time until we see a top-10 ranked Indian tennis player.

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